Common Opposites – Antonyms
A word that has the exact opposite meaning of another word
is its antonym. Life is full of antonyms, from the "stop" and "go"
of a traffic signal to side-by-side restroom doors labeled "men"
and "women. Most antonyms are pretty obvious, like "good" and
"bad," or "black" and "white." Some words can be transformed
into their antonyms simply by adding the prefixes "un," "in," or
"non," as when "likable" is changed into its antonym, "unlikable."
absent – present
accept - decline, refuse
begin - end
below – above
careful – careless
come – go
early - late
fast – slow
war – peace
take - give
tall - short
rare - common
regular - irregular
push – pull
fail - succeed
false – true
join – separate
new - old
night – day
melt – freeze
odd - even
like - dislike, hate
sweet - sour
big - little, small
black – white
correct - incorrect, wrong
old - new
on - off
open - closed, shut